Method of and machine for making packing rings



- Feb. a, 1923.

1,444,575. J. B. WENZEL. mambo OF AND MACHlNE FOR MAKING PACKING RINGS.

FILED AUG.20, 1920.

3 SHEETSSHEET I.

Feb. 6, 1923. 1,444,575 J. B. WENZEL.

METHOD OF AND MACHINE FOR MAKING PACKING RINGS.

FILED AUG-20, 1920. 3 SHEETS-SHEET 2- 4 fgnga Feb. 6, 1923.

J. B. WENZEL. METHOD OF AND MACHINE FOR MAKING PACKING RINGS.

3 SHEETSSHEET 3.

FILED AUG- 20, 1920 Y kw IUTUH/l/EKS smaller than the radius of the piston ring to be operated upon, the said working surface being formed with suitable projections 13 which are adapted to form corresponding indentations in the surface of the piston ring for the purpose of densifying the metal therein to produce the necessary resiliency. The working surface 12 of the die member 11 is substantially concentric with the shaft 8 and extends for only a portion of the periphery of the die member while the opposite side of the die member is cut away at 11. The die member 11 may be secured to the arbor in any suitable manner as by means of the spacing sleeve 14 and the clamping nut 15, the die member being secured between the said sleeve and nut. A bearing bracket 16 projects forwardly from the extension bearing 1 and has at its outer end a half bearing 1'? which engages the upper half of the forward part of the counter shaft 8.

A piston ring support or anvil 18 is arranged beneath the die 11 to support the piston ring while it is being operated upon by the said die. This anvil may as of any suitable construction, but in the present instance it is shown as comprising a casing having an annular recess 19 in the upper face thereof in which are mounted the ball bearings 20. The said recess 19 is closed by a substantially horizontal anvil ring 21. which is rotatably mounted on the anvil 18 by means of the screw 22, the said anvil ring resting upon the balls 20' The upper surface of the anvil ring 21 at its edge is cut away as at 23 inwardly of the ring a distance substantially equal to the width of the piston ring to be operated upon so that a vertical shoulder 24 is provided to form a guide for the piston ring upon the anvil ring 21. An adjustable slide 25 is mounted on the anvil 18 to cooperate with the shoulder 24: on the anvil ring to maintain the piston ring in proper relation to the die 11 and prevent the piston ring from moving laterally from beneath the said die member. At the side of the anvil opposite the slide 25 is secured a keeper plate 26 which overlaps the anvil ring 21 as indicated in Figures 6 and 7 so as to prevent the said anvil ring from tilting when pressure is exerted upon the ring by the die member 11. in Opera tion the piston ring is set upon the anvil ring 21 between the shoulder 2 1 and the slide 25 as indicated by dotted linesin Fig ure 7 and dot and dash line in Figure 1. the piston ring being so positioned that the projections 13 on the die member when the same is rotated will engage the ring at the proper point to ensure densification of the proper portion of the piston ring. its the die member 11 is rotated the })1Oj"'?fl0118 153 will successively engage the surface of the piston ring, and the piston ring will thereb be rotated by the rotation of the die memher, the anvil ring 21 rotating beneath the piston ring upon the balls 20 through the frictional engagement of the piston ring with the anvil ring. The piston ring is thus smoothly and evenly rotated and successive portions thereof operated upon by the die member in order to accurately and uniformly densify the metal in the piston ring.

It is desirable to stop the rotation'of the die member 11 after the operation upon the piston ring has been completed in order to prevent repetition of the operation which would injure the ring, and also to enable the ring to be removed from the anvil.

When the die member is in its normal inoperative position the working surface 12 thereof is at the upper side of the shaft 8 and the cut away portion 11 thus provides a substantial clearance between the anvil and the die member for the purpose of inserting a ring between the die member and anvil and removing the same therefrom. For so stopping rotation of the die member, a belt pulley 27 is mounted to rotate upon the drive shaft 5, the said pulley being provided with a friction clutch surface 28 to cooperate with a clutch disk 29 fast upon the drive shaft 5, the said pulley and clutch disk being normally separated by the spring 30. A clutch lever 31 is pivotally mounted intermediate its ends as at 82 upon the inner side of the extension shaft bearing 4, the outer end. of said clutch lever engaging the pulley 27 and being connected by a linl: 33 to one end of a translating lever 34 pivotally mounted between its ends at upon the extension bearing 4, the opposite end of said translating lever being connected to a clutch rod 36 having a handle portion 37 arranged at the front of the machine. The inner end of the clutch lever 31 is provided with an angular-1y projecting head 38 which normally engages a notch 39 in the periphcry of a disk 4-.0 fast upon the counter shaft 8, the said head 38 of the clutch lever thus locking the counter shaft 8 against rotation. To start the machine the clutch rod 86 is pulled forwardly which forces the pulley 27 into engagement with the friction disk 29 against the action of thespring 30, and simultaneously removes the head 38 of the clutch lever 31 from the slot. 39 in the disl: 40. The drive shaft and counter shaft 8 are thus started in'rotation, and when the clutch rod 36 is releasech the spring 30 tends to return the clutch lever 31 to its original position. However, the full return movement of the clutch lever is prevented by the engagement of the head 38 thereof with the side face of the disk -10 until a complete revolution of the counter shaft 8 has been accomplished, afterwhich the spring 30 will force the head 38 of the clutch lever 31 into the notch 39 of the disk 40 to stop rotation of :the counter shaft 8 and simultaneously disengage the pulley 27 from the clutch disk 29. For the purpose of instantaneously stopping the rotation of the drive shaft 5 to overcome the momentum thereof which would tend to strain the mechanism or strip the gears, a brake member 41-1 is slidably mounted in the shaft bearing head 8' and is adapted to be forced into engagement with the clutch disk 29 at the end of one rotation of the counter shaft 8 by means of a brake operating arm 42 secured to the said shaft 8, the said brake operating arm projecting beyond the periphery of the gear wheel 7 as shown in Figure and having its outer end inclined outwardly so as to engage and slip over the projecting end of the brake rod 43 and force the brake 4-1 against the clutch disk 29. A spring 44- is preferably provided for normally holding the brake il from e gagement with the clutch disk 29 and maintaining the outer end of the brake rod 43 in the path of the brake operating arm 12.

in the manufacture of piston rings it often occurs that some of the rings of varying thicknesses at different portions of their lengths due to inaccuracy in manufacture, and were the anvil 18 rigidly fixed with respect to the die member 11 the ring being operated upon would be cracked or broken when one of these irregularities on the piston ring was encountered by the die member 11. To overcome this difliculty the anvil 18 is shown as yieldingly mounted with respect to the die member 11 so that when an irregularity in the piston ring passes beneath the die member 11 the anvil will yield away from the roll to allow the irregularity to pass without breaking the ring. Any suitable construction may be employed, but in the presentinstance the anvil is shown as provided with a polygonal post 45 which is vertically slidable through a supporting bracket 4E6 mounted on the bed 1 of the machine, the polygonal formation of the post 45 preventing rotation of the anvil. A counter weightlever s? has one end thereof pivotally connected to the lower end of the post 45, the said lever being fulcrumed at an intermediate point in its length upon the fulcrum link 48 pivotally connected to a lug 4E9 projecting from the bracket d6. A counter weight 50 is adjustably mounted upon the opposite end of the said counter weight lever 47, and it will thus be obvious that when a predetermined pressure is ex er ed by the die member 11 upon the anvil 18 the anvil will be forced downwardly against the action of the counter weight 50 so as to allow any irregularity on the piston ring to pass the die member. The fulc u link {LS will allow a slight longitudr al movement of the lever 4:7 to compensate for the vertical movement of the anvil a5 to preventbinding of the post 2:5 of the bracketl6, and by adjusting the counter weight 50 longitudinally of the lever 4E7 the amount of pressure exerted upon the piston ring canbe varied. This pressure is preferably just sufficient to produce the friction between. the ring and die member required for rotation of the ring by the die, but it will be understood that said pressure may be adjusted for the purpose of rolling the indentations into the ring under pressure. To prevent the counter weight 50 from forcing the anvil upwardly against the counter shaft 8 an adjustable stop screw 51 may be secured in the bed 1 beneath the lever 927 so as to limit the downward movement of the counter weight 50. By means of this adjustable stop screw 51 the distance between the die member 11 and the anvil 18 can also be adjusted to accommodate various thicknesses of piston rings.

My invention also contemplates the hammerin of the indentations into the piston ring simultaneously with the rolling thereof, and I have illustrated in the drawngs one possible apparatus for accomplishing this result, although other constructions might be utilized. As shown in the drawings, a pair of ratchet wheels 52 are n'iounted fast upon the drive shaft 5, the teeth of the said ratchet wheels leing arranged in staggered relation as shown by Figure 1 of the drawings. A hami'ner lever for each of the ratchet wheels 52 is pivotally mounted at 54k upon the bracket 46, the said hammer levers comprising substantially horizontal arms upon which are mounted lugs 56 engaged by the respective ratchet wheels 52, the said lugs being held against the ratchet wheels by means of the springs 57 mounted in the spring supporting bracket 58 secured to the bed of the machine. integrally or otherwise connected with the arms of the hammer levers 53 are the substantially vertical arms the upper ends of which overhang the counter shaft 8 and are H'OVlClEKl with adjustable hamm r screws 60 which engage the shaft to transmit the blows thereto. As the drive shaft 5 is rotated the teeth of the respective ratchet wheels 52 slip over the lugs 56 on the respective hammer levers and force the same downwardly which raises the hammer screws 60 from the shaft 8 As each tooth of the respective ratchet wheelspusscs by the lugs 51; the springs 5'7 snap the hammer lever arms upwardly so as to cause the hammer screws 60 to successively strike the counter shaft 8 and impart blows thereto the staggered relation of the teeth of the ratchet wheels causing the hammer screws to alte lately strike the shaft 8 in rapid succession. Le blows r11 P j, n ne rorce or t of the hammer levers may be re :ied by adusting the tension of the spring by means of the rods 57. The cinuitcrshaft 8 projectmg forwardly from the extension shaft bearing 4: is allowed to spring or vibrate a limited amount in order to transmit the force of the blows of the hammer screws to the piston ring being operated upon, and as the drive shaft 5 and counter shaft 8 rotate simultaneously and for the same length of time the piston ring will have the indentations rolled and hammered thereinto sirnultaneousiy. Vfhile the forward end of the shaft 8 may vibrate and spring under .the blows from the hammer lovers, the bearing bracket 16 prevents the shaft from bending upwardly or breaking under the pressure incident to the operation of the die member against the piston ring and anvil l8.

With my improved method of densifying piston rings by rolling, it will be noted that the indentations in the ring can be accurate and uniformly produced in a very simple and inexpensive manner. The rolling of the piston ring by my new process and machine produces a uniform tension in the ring, which has heretofore been in'ipossible due to the difficulty in either uniformly spacingthe indentations in the ring or producing blows of uniform intensity. Tn the modern machines for hammering piston rings the ring is usually fitted within a die and the expansion thereof caused by the luunmering is limited by the walls of the die whereas in my present apparatus the ring is free to em pand in all directions and uinforiuly while being operated upon by the die member 11 upon the anvil 18. The piston ring is rotated and advanced under the die member automatically and by the die member itself so that the indentations are properly spaced thereby eliminating the usual complicated and unreliable mechanism for simultaneously forming the indentations and rotating the piston ring.

It will be understood that the projections 13 on the die member for formin the indentations in the piston ring be of any suitable or desirable configuration and of any size and that the size of the die member 11 can be variedaccording to the diameter of the piston ring being operated upon. The densification of the ring may be accom plished by varied spacing of the indentations with blows or pressure of uniform intensity, or the indentations may be spaced equidistantly and formed by varying pressure or blows of varying intensity. It will also be observed that some cases it may be desirablc'to fo *m the indentations in the piston ring by rolling and when such is the case the hammer le s 53 can be removed from the machine or the ammer screws 60 can be so adjusted as to prevent contact thereof with i the counter shaft 8. The anvil might also l e the driven member for rotating with respect to a fixed anvil instead of the anvil being yieldingly mounted with respect to a fixed die member as shown. it will thus be seen that many modifications and changes can be made in the detail construction and arrangement of the parts of my machine without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention, and I do not desire to be limited in the construction and use of my invention except as required by the following claims when construed in the light of the prior art.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim is l. The method of densifying packing rings consisting in simultaneously rolling and hammering a packing ring.

2. The method of densifying packing rings consisting in simultaneously hammering and rolling indentations into a surface of the ring. r

3. The method of densifying packing rings consisting in passing a ring between a pair of opposed members, one of which is a rotating die member, and exerting blows upon one of said members simultaneously with the rotation of said die member.

4.. The method .of" densifying packing rings consisting in forming the periphery of a die member with a. plurality of projections, placing a ring between said. die member and another member, maintaining engagement of said die member and said secoaid-mentioned member with said ring, rotating one of said members to rotate said ring, and exerting blows on one of said members simultaneously with said rotation.

5. Tr a machine of the character described, the combination of a rotatable die member, an anvil member arranged in opposed relation to said die member and movable in a plane at right angles to the plane of rotation of said die member, said die member and anvil member being adapted to receive a packing ring between them, means for yieldingly maintaining engagement of said die member and said anvil member, and means for moving one ofsaid members to rotate said ring between them. i

6. In a device of the character described. the combination of an anvil to support a packing ring, and means for simultaneously rolling and hammering indentations into a surface of said ring.

7. In a device of the character described, the combination. of a die member, an anvil to support a packing ring between itself and said die member, and means for simul taneously rotating said die member and e;- e'rting blows thereon.

S. In a device of the character described. the combination of a die member, an anvil to support a packing ring between itself and said die member, and means for simultaneonsly rusing relative movement of said die member and said packing ring and exerting blows upon said die member.

9. In a device of the character described, the combination of a die member, an anvil to support a packing ring between itsel'i and said die member, means for holding said packing ring between said die member and said anvil under pressure, means for causing relative,movement of said die member and said packing ring, and means for exerting blows upon said die member simultaneously with. said relative movement of the die member and packing ring.

10. In a machine of the character described, the combination of a rotatable die member, means for yieldinglv maintaining frictional engagement between said die mem her and said ring, means for producing, relative movement of said die member and said ring, and means for exerting blows on said die member simultaneously with said relative movement of said packingring and said die member.

11. In a machine of the character described, the combination of a rotatable die member, an anvil member arranged in opposed relation to said die member to receive a packing ring between itself and litl die member, means for producing relative move ment of said anvil and said die member to rotate the said ring therebetween, means for yieldingly holding said die men and said anvil member in frictional eng e1nent with said ring, and means for exerting blows on one of said members simultaneously with the relative movement thereof.

12. In a machine of the character described, the combination of a rotatable die member, an anvil member arranged in opposed relation to said die member and movable in a plane at right angles to the plane of rotation of said die member, said die member and anvil member being adapted to receive a packing ring between them, means for yieldingly maintaining engagement of said die member and said anvil member, means for moving one of said members to rotate said ring between them, and means for exerting blows on one of said members simultaneously with the rotation of said ring: a

13, In a device 0 the character described, the combination of a shaft, a die member mounted thereon, an anvil to support a packing ring between itself and said die member, means for causing relative more ment of said die member and said packing ring, and means for imparting blows to said shaft simultaneously with said movement.

14. In a device of the character described, the combination of a shaft, means for rotating the same, a die member fixed on said shaft, an anvil to support a packing ring between itselfand said die member, and means for imparting blows to said shaft simultaneously with the rotation thereof.

15. In a device of the character described, the combination of a bearing, a shaft journaled therein and projecting substantial distance outwardly from said bearing. a die member mounted on said outwardly projccting portion of the shaft, an anvil to support a packing; ring; between itself and said die member, and means for imparting blows to said projecting portion of the sha ft, said blows being transmi ted to the die member by the vibration of said projecting portion of the shaft.

16. In a device of the character described, the combination of a rotatable die member, and an anvil having;- a movable portion for supporting a packing ring between itself and said die member, said packing ring being rotated by engagement with said die member and said movable portion of the anvil moving beneath said ring by frictional en gagement.

17. In a machine of the character described, the combination of a rotatable die member, a support for a packing ring in opposed relation to said die member to receive a packing ring between itself and said die member, means for rotating; said die memher to rotate said ring, and means for autonatically stopping rotation of said die member at the end of one revolution.

18. In a machine of the ClltllilfftL-l' c scribed, the combii'lation of a rotatable die member, a support for a, packing ring in opposed relation to said die member to receive a packing ring between itself and said die member, a source of power, a driving mechanism for connecting said source of power with said die member to rotate the latter, means or autmnatically disconnecting)- said source of power from said die memb one revohition of said die iember matic brake means for overcomi nentum of said d riving mechanis i simuh 'aneously with said disconnecting of the source of power from said die member.

JACOB B. WENZTCL, 

